To not catch the flu, you need not touch the face
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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With the onset of winter colds, the number of colds and people with flu is increasing, and therefore there is a threat of catching the virus.
However, those who are determined to avoid illness at all costs should take note that simply washing their hands for this is not enough. Particular danger is represented by offices where premises are poorly ventilated and all microbes and viruses settle on tables, keyboard and other objects.
A team of researchers from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, discovered that we infect ourselves with bacteria and viruses, touching the mouth and nose after we touch the contaminated surface. Nevertheless, many believe that if you do not contact the sick, then washing your hands will be enough to not get infected. Odako in the intervals between washing hands, when a person believes that after washing his hands well, he eradicated all the evil, and there is a movement of microbes.
This transfer of microbes from itself to itself even has a special name - autovaccination or the transmission of viruses from one part of the body to another. It is this method of infection that is considered to be the main one both in the transfer of microbes from the patient to the healthy one and from the infected surface. That is, the more often we touch our face, the more we risk being infected.
The results of the work of specialists were published in the scientific journal "Clinical Infectious Diseases".
Researchers conducted observations of 249 people. They watched their behavior and the frequency of the person's touch.
As it turned out, on average for one hour people touch the face with their hands 3.6 times, and their touch to the surrounding objects occur with a frequency of 3.3 times per hour.
Thus, if you do not wash your hands every 15 minutes, people are more likely to get a second infection. Therefore, rely on frequent washing hands is not necessary, it is better to listen to the advice of professionals and during outbreaks of epidemics touch the face as rarely as possible. By the way, doctors recommend less panic in such periods and worry that you can pick up the infection, because nervousness and anxiety adversely affect the body's defenses, greatly weakening them.